Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit • Hacker News Board

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#121

Post by Retric » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:26 PM UTC

macspoofing wrote: post #111

whoisjuan wrote: post #39

Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). A sinister business model in every possible way.

>Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Because it isn't that big of a deal. > Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). That's a hyperbolic characterization. It's not t…

Bribery isn’t lobbying.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#122

Post by RC_ITR » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

krferriter wrote: post #12

Given how much H&R Block and Intuit have unethically and corruptly leeched from the government and the taxpayers directly, I think the should literally be nationalized and have their tax software platforms absorbed into the IRS. Their company activities over the last few decades are so flagrantly, indisputably bad for the country. There's literally no upside, none at all. They have intentionally sabotaged tax filing…

This is the group you think will defend the little guy? "IRS: Sorry, but It’s Just Easier and Cheaper to Audit the Poor"[0]

[0]https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-sorry-but-its-just-ea...

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#123

Post by WorldMaker » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:28 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #34

cmckn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure. The IRS needs to offer a tax preparation platform, the grift in this industry is astounding. I've always had decent experiences with TurboTax, but they've gotten extremely good at making your taxes hell if you want to avoid giving them $89.99.

This year we tried doing our taxes using both TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA. TurboTax has a much worse interface, it took almost twice as long to complete the taxes despite having an identical return. TurboTax did find about $50 more return for us somehow despite having entered the same information into both sites, but that amount is less than the fee TurboTax would charge so we ended up submitting through FreeTaxUSA inste…

It may be apocrypha, but supposedly Intuit years ago realized that people don't think the system "worked hard enough" if results returned immediately. (These kind of calculations are what computers do well and generally return immediately.) Supposedly Intuit has been A/B testing for decades how many artificial delays to give people the impression that the system is "working harder" for them. They intentionally want their interface to be worse and "slower" because of the idiot dark pattern that our dumb monkey brains think that "serious things" like taxes need lots of "calculation time".

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#124

Post by Spooky23 » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:28 PM UTC

lokar wrote: post #74

I know Intuit has legislators at the federal level in their pockets, but I would think that in a place like California it would be harder. Has there been any progress to have simple automatic filing for state taxes?

Lol. No.

State Legislators are really cheap. Donate <$500 and you’ll be able to get in-person meetings.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#125

Post by macspoofing » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #121

macspoofing wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Because it isn't that big of a deal. > Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). That's a hyperbolic characterization. It's not t…

Bribery isn’t lobbying.

Lobbying is lobbying. There is a tendency by some purist to label democratic actions like lobbying, patronage or campaign donations as 'bribery' or 'corruption'. No no no no. Democracy is messy and involves horse-trading, negotiation and balancing of many interest groups to push political priorities.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#126

Post by Retric » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:31 PM UTC

birdyrooster wrote: post #77

whoisjuan wrote: post #39

Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). A sinister business model in every possible way.

People need to stop calling companies “big tech” because every large cap company uses technology in a way that used to be exclusive to one tech industry.

Nintendo wasn’t a tech company for a long time but it made the switch. The same is true of Intuit, if most of your money comes from directly selling software/computer hardware ... your a tech company.

That’s still not true of most large companies like say Walmart or McDonalds which still invest a great deal in technology.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#127

Post by Retric » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:33 PM UTC

macspoofing wrote: post #125

Retric wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bribery isn’t lobbying.

Lobbying is lobbying. There is a tendency by some purist to label democratic actions like lobbying, patronage or campaign donations as 'bribery' or 'corruption'. No no no no. Democracy is messy and involves horse-trading, negotiation and balancing of many interest groups to push political priorities.

I don’t mean campaign donations to support candidates who agree with your cause. I mean strait up bribery where you hand people cash to do stuff for you.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#128

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:33 PM UTC

cmckn wrote: post #5

WisNorCan wrote: post #2

Intuit is consistently one of the least ethical actors in tech. They have a monopoly position in many of their products and take advantage of some of the poorest people through misinformation and lobbying. Facebook & Uber have received most of the heat over the past few years. Intuit has strangely avoided the same level of scrutiny.

For sure. The IRS needs to offer a tax preparation platform, the grift in this industry is astounding. I've always had decent experiences with TurboTax, but they've gotten extremely good at making your taxes hell if you want to avoid giving them $89.99.

[deleted]

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#129

Post by novok » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:34 PM UTC

whoisjuan wrote: post #39

Already said in this thread, but I think it's ridiculous that when people think about abusive big tech, they never think about Intuit. Their business is literally the idea of creating friction in federal and local tax systems so they can extort people in exchange of removing some of those synthetic frictions (emphasis on "some"). A sinister business model in every possible way.

Intiuit is medium-large tech, like a twitter, ebay, paypal, square, uber, etc. Also they pay crap and the work is uninteresting which is why nobody focuses on them.

Re: Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit

#130

Post by throwaway98211 » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:36 PM UTC

>The Child Tax Credit is a seriously good piece of policy...

Maybe in intent, but certainly not in implementation. Fine if you want to give money to the poor / people with no income, but enacting that through our tax system (designed to collect tax dollars) seems like a particularly poor proscription to achieve the ends. Here's another take (that I'm sure will be unpopular)...

'In 2021, progressives cloaked an expansion to our entitlement programs through a tax cut to get the bill through Congress. This has been hard to implement, and company's like Inuit aren't helping as much as they could.'